We’ve all seen the charts and had the dispiriting conversations with our financial advisor. For most of us, there is a seven-figure gap between what we need for retirement and what we’ve saved. This isn’t an information problem. We have no shortage of retirement calculators, research studies, and financial services advertising to help us understand and size up the problem. The truth is there is a lot of irrationality in our decision-making.[...]
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In my most recent blog I highlighted why, over the long term, it makes sense for most investors to not be completely void of U.S. equity exposure in their investment portfolios. I demonstrated that more than half of the available return in the S&P 500 index since 1979 was generated during the 50 “best” return days. Out of 9,200 trading days, more than half of the market’s overall return occurred in ½ of 1 percent of the trading days. With these odds, it is hard to justify[...]
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The present bull market has been in place for a little over six years. Are we overdue for a correction? Is the stock market overvalued? What has been behind this prolonged bull run? We'll discuss these issues and more in this article. If you own stocks, this is a must read!
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Each year, I put my head on the chopping block and publish a 30-year forecast for global stock and bond market returns. This forecast is used to create long-term asset allocation strategies for our clients. It’s a terribly imprecise exercise because no one can know how financial markets will perform in the future. There are just too many variables and too many unknowns. Yet, here it is. So, why do I risk professional suicide each year with an expected return forecast that’s bound to be[...]
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